The flood of December 2009 or
Bucket look what happened to our clubhouse or
The Purley Bury Tsunami.

During the week of the 30th December 2009 the club experience a large outflow of water from the drain on the club site behind the area of the disabled toilet. Water was flooding out from under the drain hole cover and around the club house. The main road was covered with water and we seemed to be getting more than our fair share. As the new extension wasn’t designed with floating and animals in mind John called Thames water to come and relieve the problem with the water.
It appears that the personnel who came believed that it was a small blockage and after some “rooding” the drain flowed away and the water lowered. John had a discussion with the personnel now on site but they seemed to think that the problem was solved (ask John for further details he swears better than me, well most times).
The problem however was not solved and come a further cloudburst and downfall on Wednesday the water again failed to dissipate and overflowed the drain behind the club house again.
Fortunately this happened in the early afternoon when there was a group of short mat bowlers in the club playing (a group who will be called from here on the Canutes. The inflow of water now progressing along into the main body of the club from the corridor to the new extension was seen and they immediately jumped in to action. The Canutes rolled up the mats and using brooms, mops, brushes, buckets , bowls etc. were employed in stemming the tide. The Herculean efforts of the Canutes forced the water back towards whence it had come and stopped it from reaching the kitchen. Hip, hip hooray!!
John “Noah” Tucker called Thames again and they arrived with some CCTV things and announced that the bucket had dropped down and blocked the drain.
Bucket? Bucket? Yes I have spelt in correctly! It appears that there was an arrangement put in place when the drains were first laid that employes a bucket on chains that catches large solid things and was then emptied regularly (in those bygone days). This no longer appears to happen and the chains holding the bucket finally failed and it then went and blocked the flow of water through the drain. The bucket was removed by a new set of Thames Water personnel and the water now flows. On Thursday there was a drain cleaning van down outside the club and the drain was also cleared of various amounts of fat build up.
The area outside the club has been marked up with warning notices which announce some work that will take place between the 11th and the 14th of December. Don’t watch this space watch the space in the road!!

Stop Press. If I can get some of the photos taken I’ll put some here.